Friday, July 19, 2013

RAGGING - My Second Malayalam Film

Director N.N. Pisharady who directed "NINAMANIJA KALPADUKAL" in which Actor Madhu did his debut in Malayalam films gave me the opportunity to work in his film "RAGGING". Actor P.J.Antony wrote the lyrics for the film and the Music composed by M.K.Arjunan. It was produced under the banner Hari Sree Productions by Issac Thomas , Advocate from N. Paravur. Vasudevan Nair (whom we used to address as Vasu annan) the elder brother of Producer Shobana Parameswaran Nair was the Production Manager.

Asst Director Baby, Vasu Annan, N.N. Pisharady and me

Vasu annan was a chronic bachelor and his house at No.7, Gokulam Colony was a refuge for those aspiring to enter the film industry and other fields. There were some permanent residents like Aslam who was employed in Railways. But others came in and stayed for some time and left when they found jobs and places to stay. Vasu annan was very generous to everyone by giving food and accommodation for the needy and supported them to find their way in to the film industry at Kodambakkam. I too enjoyed his hospitality for a few days before I found some other lodging place. Some of the inmates I remember were Kalliyoor Sasi and singer Chirayinkil Soman. M.T.Vasudevan Nair also addressed him as Vasu annan" and was very close to him and entrusted the Madras part of the production work of NIRMALYAM to him. On his last day Vasu annan dropped M.T. in his car at Palm Grove Hotel, came back to his house, had a heart attack and died the same night.

N.N. Pisharady and me

The Producer Issac Thomas and Director N.N. Pisharady wanted to cast newcomers in the film as they felt that to act as college students the actors should be really young. A group of youngsters were selected and Jameela Malik a batch mate of mine from the Film Institute was assigned the female lead role. The shooting started at Kalamassery Rajagiri College, near Alwaye. This was the first time I am doing a location shooting in the State of Kerala as my first film was entirely shot in Madras. After a few days of shooting we found that some of the boys were not capable of emoting and we had to look for regular actors to play the lead roles.We retained Jameela and Balan Nair a new comer with a rough look to play a negative character. For others we cast popular actors Vincent and Sudheer and local theatre artists. Below is a photo taken with the Still Photographer Pappachan ( Noble Pictures, Meenangady) and Balan Nair who still keep in touch with me.

Stills Noble Pappachan and Actor Balan Nair

To play the love interest of Sudheer we decided upon Rani Chandra who at the time was shooting for P.N.Menon.s film CHEMPARATHI. My self N.N.Pisharady and Aluva Thampy went to Kollam to contact Sudheer and Rani Chandra and get their dates for our film. That was my first meeting and she was a simple and friendly person. Though she was selected as Miss Kerala, I found her to be a typical Malayalee girl with curly hair and tanned skin with an out going nature. At Neela Hotel Bamboo bar we also had an eventful meeting with veteran Malayalam writer Kakkanadan too along with S.K.Nair playing host.

Rani Chandra

The Producer Issac Thomas played the role of the Jesuit Principal of the college with ease and he later on acted in the film SWAPNADANAM as a Psychiatrist.

Producer Issac Thomas (sitting)

In the initial stages we had some problem in obtaining permission to shoot in the college locations so we went to Mysore to do the shooting. The added attraction was the Film Subsidy of Rs.50,000 given by the Karnataka Government.We were travelling at night in car through the forest area and suddenly a lone tusker appeared blocking our road. On seeing it I was excited and shouted " Look..an Elephant" P.J. Antony who was with us in the card scolded me for making noise as it was an wild elephant. We remained in the car with tension till it moved away after a few minutes.

After doing some shooting we found Mysore also not suitable and returned to Alwaye where the film was shot.

Through the Mitchell Camera's Viewfinder

Director N.N. Pisharady was a pleasant man to work with, cool tempered and widely read person. He really wanted to make an interesting film. The censors chopped the film badly and the film failed at the box office as a result.For instance there was a comic character called Prof. Iyer in the film and most of his comedy dialogues were cut by a Brahmin censor board member who objected it on caste grounds.

Present New Generation film makers are credited with the trend in giving the film with English Titles. But way back in 1973, Director N.N. Pisharady had given his film the title - "RAGGING"

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About Me

Born in1947, at Maduranthakam,
Tamil Nadu, INDIA,
Ramachandra Babu graduated from the Film Institute of India, in 1971. He
started his career as Cinematographer with the film VIDYARTHIKALEYITHILEY
(1972) and had done more than125Feature films as Director of Photography in
Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Arabic and English Languages. Four times Award
Winner of Kerala State Film Awards for Excellence in Cinematography, he had
also won many more Awards like –Rangam Award, Nana award, Film Fans Award, Film
Critics award, Lux – Asianet Film Award etc for Excellence in Cinematography.

He had been associatedas Cinematographer of many nationally and
Internationally renowned Film Directors such as John
Abraham, Ramu
Kariat, Bharathan, K.G.
George, M.T.Vasudevan
Nair, P.N.Menon, I.V.
Sasi, Sethu
Madhavan, Sasi
Kumar, Hariharan, Mohan, Mani Rathnam
etc.He paints in water colours and writes poems in English in his spare time.

Being a Poet, he is also the
inventor and creator of the new Genre of short film CINEKU, a unique
combination of Cinema and Haiku Poems. He lives in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India,
with his wife and two sons. Besides being connected with several Film Associations,
he is also the Founder President of INDIAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS (www.iscindia.in)